What's so great about RCA?

[Dave S]

I worked for a small, neighborhood TV dealer / repair shop in the late sixties several days a week after school. They sold Zenith (and later also Andrea) and were very proud of the fact that Zenith and Andrea sets still featured a "hand wired" chassis. That was supposed to be the mark of the upper echelon of quality at the time. Not sure if the hand wired circuits of the day were more or less reliable than a printed circuit, but I do recall that the sets cost more!

[Tubejunke]

Well, I am pleased to have tuned in today to see that my "rant" evolved into a well worded and educational reasoning behind some of my observations, and/or complaints. I feel better about my Zenith "roundie" which I had began to think might be another boat anchor. I, like at least one other member that posted, do not have the room to rescue every unwanted vintage TV that I find. Just the 8 or 10 that I do have keep my place so cluttered that I can't hardly work on them without moving a whole room around. As I mentioned, and more than once, I have tried to give away sets just to make room and to make sure that they go to a good home. The sad reality is that if a person can't find a home for a set, then it's either stripped of re-usable parts and the cabinet broken apart, or off to the Goodwill store where it will likely end up in a dumpster as a whole unit. So the former destructive idea at least saves a few parts. Mt 59 Space Command, that nearly everyone has probably heard about by now, is a great example of how a potentially wonderful "save" can end up as garbage because I couldn't and can't find a home. Maybe it is fate because the set is really a good looking set with a large 24" CRT that would be a GREAT candidate for a daily viewer if I ever find the short in the vertical circuitry that causes little or no sweep and a constant volume adjustable hum in the sound. The longer I look at it, the more value I see in it's beauty, AND the large CRT to me makes it a bit odd as typical sets then were 21".

If any of you 40's lovers are reading this, I have an RCA 8T-243 sitting on top of the Space Command that I am tired of looking at. Frankly, it's not even half as nice looing as it's wothless companion. It needs a home, but since they are "collectable" it will not be a freebie. Really the Space Command shouldn't be, but as we have mentioned, sets of that era simply are hard to get rid of unless you live in close proximity to a well to do collector with a lot of space (no pun).

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by Dave S

were very proud of the fact that Zenith and Andrea sets still featured a "hand wired" chassis. That was supposed to be the mark of the upper echelon of quality at the time. Not sure if the hand wired circuits of the day were more or less reliable than a printed circuit, but I do recall that the sets cost more!

Don't know about TVs, but the "hand wired" pitch was a flop in the radio world. Zenith touted their "hand wired" chassis when they introduced the Royal 7000 TransOceanic radio in the late 1960s. This was ten-year old technology and a huge marketing blunder. Competing radios with printed-circuit technology performed better, cost less, and weighed less. Zenith threw away the market for high-end multiband portables, a market they had single-handedly created in the 1940s and dominated for decades.

Phil

[Kalamazoo-DJ]

I was originally looking for an RCA roundie, ended up with Magnavox,Zenith and Philco long before I located a good RCA. They were either picked over or rarely sold in my area. I did end up with 4 of them but it took a year of looking. As i have experienced it all my brands of roundies seem to work equally and were one brand has a quirk/problem the other doesn't seem to and back and forth between them.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by kx250rider

From an ethical standpoint, RCA should be shunned, as David Sarnoff was basically Russian mafia man, ... and he was responsible for the suicide of Edwin H. Armstrong, and would crush any smaller company who might have had a better idea than his.

Story I heard had it that Sarnoff, at the time friendly with Armstrong, asked him to develop a noise free radio receiver. Armstrong came up with FM, not what Sarnoff had in mind, as FM would require all new transmitters in a new radio band. Sarnoff wanted a noise free AM receiver (he was the CEO, not an engineer...). And Sarnoff saw this new FM radio system as a competitor to has baby: Television. Maybe if Armstrong mentioned to Sarnoff that if television used FM for the sound, Sarnoff and RCA would have a killer app. But this is Monday morning quarterbacking... Anyway, Sarnoff was mad when the FCC mandated FM for TV sound, as he didn't want to pay patent licensing to Armstrong. Armstrong's widow eventually prevailed in the lawsuit, but Armstrong suicided before then. Not a high point in RCA corporate history...

[Steve D.]

Posted by Jeff: "BTW, does anyone have any info on the "ON" Corporation, as applied to today's RCA televisions? I have noticed this corporation being mentioned in recent RCA literature online, and I'm curious to know what connections or associations this firm has with today's RCA. Is it a division of (or a successor to) Thomson? If not, is the ON Corporation a separate entity that is now using the current RCA block logo under license, but is not associated in any way with RCA or Thomson?
__________________
Jeff, WB8NHV"

The RCA TV brand name has been kicked from piller to post ever since the RCA brand was bought by GE. If you need warrenty work on your RCA here is a list of who did and who currently owns the RCA TV brand. And who will and will not repair them anymore. This does not include Audiovox who owns the rights to RCA's other consumer electronics products.

RCA TELEVISION SUPPORT
Address:http://voxrightnow.custhelp.com/app/...vision-support

-Steve D.

[Sandy G]

Sarnoff was reputedly a megalomaniac who hounded his underlings unmercifully. One of his supposed quotes was "I don't GET ulcers, I GIVE them..." After he got his general's comission for RCA's defense work in WW2-which he'd lobbied hard for, BTW, he insisted his minions at RCA start referring to him as "General Sarnoff".

[oldtvman]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

Don't know about TVs, but the "hand wired" pitch was a flop in the radio world. Zenith touted their "hand wired" chassis when they introduced the Royal 7000 TransOceanic radio in the late 1960s. This was ten-year old technology and a huge marketing blunder. Competing radios with printed-circuit technology performed better, cost less, and weighed less. Zenith threw away the market for high-end multiband portables, a market they had single-handedly created in the 1940s and dominated for decades.

Phil

I personnally found the Rca color sets much easier to repair than the Zenith brand. The only real advantage hand wiring had over pc boards were the fact that cold solder joints weren't an issue, but the pc boards made component identification much easier. As for quality both Rca and Zenith ran head to head for many years and now neither exist.

[Tubejunke]

Originally Posted by oldtvman

As for quality both Rca and Zenith ran head to head for many years and now neither exist.

That sort of sums it all up unfortunately. Sort of a lesson in the fact that whether it be the Roman Empire or The Radio Corporation of America, all things must and will pass. We spend so many stressed out days in the business world thinking that life itself hinges on the bottom line or our profit and loss statements are the former and not the latter. A few decades later it is often as if none of it ever even happened or is relevant. I sure am glad I wasn't a direct subordinate of "General" Sarinoff! LOL!

Now back to Bob Dylan- "The Bootleg Tapes"

[ctc17]

I like the color better. The colors are richer and warmer. Also other sets seem to have more noise in the picture. The way they did some things may not have been as robust as say Zenith but the performance is there.
My dad was loyal to rca sets while i was growing up and if I could take only one it would be my ctc16 combo.

[rca2000]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Sarnoff was reputedly a megalomaniac who hounded his underlings unmercifully. One of his supposed quotes was "I don't GET ulcers, I GIVE them..." After he got his general's comission for RCA's defense work in WW2-which he'd lobbied hard for, BTW, he insisted his minions at RCA start referring to him as "General Sarnoff".

Reckon we know where Gates gets HIS "business decorum" from.

[RJ Kanary]

This is in reference to kx250rider's post.

Funny you should mention industrial espionage and RCA's development of NTSC color. My late uncle was a design engineer at Raytheon Corporation while all the fur was flying.
Apparently some key ideas for chroma mod/demod that the General did not yet possess had been hashed out an brought to fruition in Uncle 'Red's' design team. They had taken it from 'breadboarded' to commercially reproducible at a rather fast clip.Some skullduggery allowed that information to be presented to Sarnoff's camp.
His Dad,my Grand Dad got to be the "first 'kid' on his block" to have a color set {In the Pittsburgh area.} when Uncle Red presented him with a long legged 20 inch Raytheon color set some time after I was born in the mid Fifties.Sadly that set vanished shortly after 'Pap's' death in the mid Seventies.
Things turned out better for Raytheon as concerns another idea in development at the same time. The microwave oven. Red got to come back to Pittsburgh from Chicago for its first demonstration here.

[reeferman]

I worked at an independent TV shop in the late 60's and a Magnavox dealer in the early 70's so I've seen a lot of almost everything there was. RCA sets were good, relatively east to fix (bad solder joints and the under chassis cooking itself to failure), and put a lot of bread on the table. Zeniths were bullet proof (well, almost) in my book. I much preferred the Zenith picture, but to each his own. Don't even get me started on Motorola. An RCA infested with dead cockroaches or a mouse was usually a real mess. Zeniths seemed to fare better after the clean up. I've had Zeniths fire right up and look good after removing the dead from inside.

While many may think working on old sets back then would have been romantic (or however you would like to think), it was often very nasty work. We had an exterminator who was a regular (for those times when the cockroaches would scramble out of the set when opened). And to stick your hand in a set and have whatever kind of bug(s) scramble all over your arm. I won't even mention the dust. Yech. Sorry I got sidetracked.

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.

[sampson159]

it was fun,wasnt it?

[DaveWM]

I must admit I have had more little offenders to fight off since I started collecting (and bringing into the house) old TV's..... can't let my wife read this....

I do a major clean up and spray before bringing in from the garage, but they are out there. I need to bring in more of the little lizards that live outside, they are great bug hunters.


Of course central FL is well know for its Palmetto bugs...mega yuck